The erratic adventures of shay & jax
No, not the ones in your head, telling you to kill (although goodness knows that we all have those, right?) but your character's voices. I was having a chat the lady behind Morgan (and Sioux, and Kira, and Zero, and Zoey, and... well, you get the picture!) about how to juggle multiple characters. It's not something I've ever been very good at, but it is something I'd like to push myself on more. The last 4-6 months or so I've managed to write both Shay and Jax at a reasonable pace, which is a small achievement for me. The problem is that I'm in danger of writing them as the same character, with Jax heading towards Shay, who's closer to my own personality. I probably made a rod for my own back by not making them wildly different to begin with, but Shay's supposed to be an awkward, over-thinker, who gets around it by acting the fool and flip-flopping between comedy swagger and self-deprecation. Jax, on the other hand, is meant to be a genuinely cocky so-and-so, only really reigned in from out-and-out arrogance by a sense of guilt about how he's treated people in the past. So getting some cocky swagger back into Jax is a priority. I'm also having a proper stab with Al, who might be a bit of a dick (TBC). So, as this is all nerdy navel gazing so far, who wants to talk about rhyme schemes? You do? Good! Hey, wait! Where are you all going? Come back - this is gonna be fun! Fuck around and catch {wreck in the spot}, {sket'll go pop} Regular readers will know I'm a Sean P fan. I've added the curly brackets to pick out the little 4-syllable rhyme scheme he's used in the last two bars of the first track from his debut solo album, Monkey Barz. Stuff like this is why, for me, Mr P was a great rhymer. Using lots of multi-syllable rhymes is something a lot of people do, but here he works the scheme in five times in two lines, while making a coherent little diss of other rappers credibility on the streets, or with the laydeez. Okay, so you either have to be from Brooklyn or listen to a lot of Hip Hop to understand the slang, but that's not the point! Great lyrics don't have to rhyme at all, or course, but my very favourite stuff usually rhymes quite intricately. Especially with Hip Hop tracks, where rhyming is pretty much the whole point. that's why I'm giving myself a chufty badge (well, no-one else is going to, are they? :P) for Shay's last effort. I was particularly pleased with: {I murder verses}, and I [place ‘em in Hearses] Shay Williams, blog freestyle, Yr87 Okay, so I didn't work in the first syllable of the forth line (I guess I could've gone with 'thy words', if I wanted to sound like a Viking) but I'm pleased with that. Four bars which, pretty much, rhyme all the way through - all at least semi-coherent, with no resorting to random words. Yes. Yes I do.
8 Comments
Well, maybe not all. Just the cute ones. Like Roger. And why, I hear you ask? Well, I dunno. Maybe it's the rugged jawline, or the burly, muscled frame, or the sensitive poets soul, or the... Okay, got distracted there for a minute! :D Let's try this again: fuck all y'all for not updating your weeblies and generally entertaining me in my coffee breaks. I miss Rice's lunatic rants, memes and inappropriateness. I miss Bagel's snark. I miss the lady behind the Foulquiers in general. I miss Roger's toned abs and perfect buns. *sigh* Anyhoo, let's focus on the positives. It's raining. If it continues to rain for the next week, it will surely aid ticket sales for the beard and moustache competition that the boss and I are hosting next week, in aid of the local air ambulance charities. (Yes, that's right - I dunno how it works in developed countries, but here in the UK, these essential life-saving services exist thanks to ordinary people volunteering their time and money - but that's a whole other rant!) The Ashes is now under way in both the men's and women's forms of the game. I hold out a lot more hope of us being successful in the women's Ashes than the men's, but as neither test has gone the way I expected so far, what the fuck do I know? Other than the fact that Bell just has to be dropped now, as having this bad a run of form in such a highly scrutinised series can surely be doing him no good at all. The result of the women's 2nd one-dayer was disappointing, but the game itself was excellent to watch. Meg Lanning's century was a joy to watch, and her run out of Charlotte Edwards at mid-wicket would have been a thing of beauty, if it wasn't a bleddy Aussie doing it! What else? Well in the strange world of Popmundo, Jax is going to be playing football (I grit my teeth and use soccer when in character, but here? Never!) for Barcelona next season. Well, he's more likely to be watching games from the bench, but such is life. Shay has finally told Lily that he used to be Shayna. Obviously she reacted with the kind of small-minded revulsion that you'd expect from such a intolerant hatemonger. I think we all know that that one is pure evil, a fact further highlighted by her continuing to hide her ongoing relationship from poor Shay. No doubt she plans to reveal the truth when it will cause the most emotional scarring... *attempts a serious face* And, because we haven't had one in forever, bask in the almost impossible loveliness of Gogo Blackwater. Have a good weekend - and write more blogs!
Finally got Jax's page up. I'm quite enjoying him so far - he's a little bit darker than any of the other character without (hopefully) straying into being one of those deep, brooding, 'troubled' characters that seems to make up one in three Popmundians. Basically he's a guy who was a bit of a fucking idiot as a younger man, who's trying to put it all behind him.
Jackson's faceclaim is Jack Gallowtree, who was suggested by the lady behind the Foulquiers. Not only is Mr Gallowtree a talented tattoo artist and a model, as far as I can tell from reading a few interviews with him, he also seems like a thoroughly nice chap. So, yeah - I pretty much hate him already. :D I also tweaked Shay's page, as I don't think 'wiry' applies any more. Let's just say that he filled out. Also Bagel will be pleased to note that his taste in beer has improved. Speaking of Shay, another single release has been slightly fucked up. This has happened enough now that I'm thinking about fucking them all up, and making it a thing. Lily is still in a relationship with Callum. Shay hasn't found out yet, the poor lummox... :'( The Ashes start dreckly. I was thinking that it was going to be a summer of shoeings, but our performances against New Zealand, and Ryan Harris' retirement has made me wonder if we might just give a good account of ourselves. A win is probably beyond us, but a narrow loss (or even a drawn series) while blooding some new players, that would be a success of sorts. No tattooed women - someone remind me about that next time. Following these tenets, I will:
For the purpose of clarity, V is dead, and will remain so forever more. Jackson is no relation of V's at all. This was just a handy way for me to get a 'new' character without mirking Shay. How did y'all spend Halloween?
If the answer is not getting photobombed by a vampire at a burlesque show, then you lose. A few days back, I was seriously considering turning Shay into a parody of the worst kind of bodybuilding.com/misc bell-end. TLFKAC helped me see the light on that one though. Instead, I'd like the character to grow up a little. Him being the class clown is wearing a little thin (for me at least - and when it comes to stuff like this, I'm the only one that counts! :P) As part of that process, I'm thinking about changing Shay's face-claim to someone a little less baby-faced. I'm struggling to think of who though. I have a performance specification in mind, but no-one leaps to mind who fills it:
If any of you could suggest anyone, I would appreciate it. How often do you write something and think, 'yep, that's a belter'? I'm talking about something that sums up the character perfectly and also flows nicely as a piece of prose, whether it was a line, a paragraph or a whole post. Chances are it's more often than I do, because a) I'm not that good* and b) I'm a picky fucker about my own stuff. (*Just to be clear, this is not some humble brag BS, or me fishing for compliments. I'm not that bad either. I hold my own, but I honestly don't think I'm as laugh-out-loud funny as Rice or Feely, as descriptive as TLBTF, I don't snark as well as Bagel, or do crazy as well as Roger. My blogs aren't as prosaic as Brook's, or as sharp as Lily's. I'm not down on myself at all, I just prefer reading other people's stuff, on the whole.) Anyway, I did have a moment during a scene with Lily that pretty much nailed Shay: Still, he had never really been one for fitness gyms, regarding them as necessary evils to be used when he didn't have time to map a run, and only really useful for the surreptitious contemplation of the female behind. Unfortunately it pegs Shay as lecherous nob, but you all knew that anyway. I was going to write about something else, but now I'm here I forget what. :P I had Shay fly to Dubrovnik to apologise to Joni for being a bellend (Shay's note: which she completely blanked - DIACF ginge!) While this is fairly typical of him, I have to say that there was some appeal in turning him into a bit of a shitbag. I know that that's going to go against all the character development to this point, but maybe if he has some kid of life trauma in the future he'll end up being a wanker like, well, like Joni and Feely? For now though he continues to be everyone's non-threatening gay friend (ask Banjolina for details :P)
Two or three big changes might happen in the next week or so, but I have to have a OOC chat with a few people first, so stay tuned, same Bread-time, same Bread-channel. Well done to Geraint Thomas (one of my favourite riders) for winning the men's Commonwealth cycling road race, and to Lizzie Armitstead for basically indelicately bumming the rest of the field on her way to winning the women's race. We can all concentrate on the footy now, which would be easier if I didn't find myself not giving a fuck. For the first time in forever I don't have a season ticket for Argyle, and I'm starting to think of more productive ways to spend Saturday afternoons. I'm sure I'll be 'cured' once the season starts. :P Mason has only gone and pinned Phil down! The two are now engaged, and I've noticed that Phil isn't even banging groupies any more. *whipcrack* I've already got my RP all worked out for the wedding. It's basically this: Would anyone like to be Vera's plus-one? They must be a capable field medic, and happy to carry a lot of large calibre ammunition. In other news, I've been rediscovering the album Cloud 9 by Bronx rapper Nine. the guy's voice and flow are quality, and Rob Lewis' production has been making the speakers in the boss' Micra rattle while my car has been having a new wheel bearing fitted. I briefly toyed with the idea of adding a 'My RP' page full of terrible RP just for shits and giggles. Shay smirked like a Maine Coon with feline distemper as he fapped his Wonka Bar against the white chocolate mounds of Yuri's Oompa-Loompas. Or... Vera was mad. Hella mad. She was as mad as Old Madman McMadface. "I'm mad" she said. "Hella mad. As mad as Old Madman McMadface!" That's proper mad, that is... The boss tells me it's very vulgar to make myself laugh, but as far as I can tell, that's the whole point; if anyone else laughs, that's just a bonus in my opinion. But still, I realised that any such short-term frivolity would be counter-productive in the long term. People will just think I'm an arse.
Which, y'know, I am. But I can at least pretend otherwise, right? So in lieu of such nonsense, I'll just point out that I'll try to fit in with whatever you do, be that narrative or action, long and involved or short and sweet, serious or fun. Either that, or I'll just communicate in YouTube links like Mason and Phil. :P PS - Just to clarify, this is not meant to be a dig at those that actually do have a 'My RP' page. It's just putting across the point that I'm too lazy and/or stupid to have anything resembling a playing style myself. PPS - I finally remembered to add The Architecture of Loss and Heavens to Betsie to the links page. Am I missing any good ones? |
WTF?!This site contains out-of-character information for characters and events in the MMO Popmundo, as well as general navel-gazing and apologies for never updating. "If you are offended by words like: Shit! Bitch! Fuck! Dick! Ass! Whore! Cum!" Ice-T
Who the Hell?!
The author is a professional person in his mid-30s, old-school Hip Hop head, Punk Rock fan, Plymouth Argyle supporter, comic book reader, and general lo-fi nerd. He lives in the countryside with two cats and newly-wed wife, all of whom seem to be above him in the pecking order. He is a big fan of tea, fig rolls, H.P. Lovecraft, facial hair and quiffs. While MPB robbed him of his quiff-rocking dreams, he does sport a dope handlebar moustache. Categories
All
|